BlackRock, a leading asset management company with over $13 trillion in assets, is intensifying its efforts to integrate traditional finance into blockchain technology. The firm aims to play a pivotal role in the tokenization process, which could enhance market accessibility and streamline asset trading.
The company’s teams are actively investigating how tokenization can improve market efficiency and accessibility. CEO Larry Fink indicated during an earnings call that significant developments are on the horizon regarding BlackRock’s involvement in asset digitization.
“I am confident we will have exciting announcements soon about our expanded role in the realm of tokenizing and digitizing assets,” Fink remarked.
Fink also predicted substantial growth for digital assets — currently valued at over $4.5 trillion — within the next few years.
BlackRock was among the pioneers to launch spot-based bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. These ETFs are now leading products with $93 billion and $17 billion under management, respectively.
The company also launched a major tokenized money market fund known as the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), valued at $2.8 billion. This fund was created alongside Securitize, a specialist in tokenization, and operates across various blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche. Last year, BlackRock spearheaded Securitize’s fundraising round of $47 million due to its confidence in growing interest around tokenization.
In Q3 of this year, BlackRock’s total AUM increased to $13.4 trillion from last year’s figure of $11.4 trillion. The firm generated revenue of $61 million from digital asset products out of its total revenue reported at $6.5 billion according to their earnings release.
On Tuesday morning trading sessions saw BlackRock shares rise by approximately 1.5%.
Read more: BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Generating More Revenue Than Its Flagship S&P 500 Fund